


Player Character Gender in Shippy Video Game Fic

by Franzeska



Series: March Meta Matters [8]
Category: Fandom - Fandom
Genre: Gen, Meta, Nonfiction, video games - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-09
Updated: 2019-12-09
Packaged: 2021-02-26 14:42:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 399
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23078080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Franzeska/pseuds/Franzeska
Summary: FPC is prefered over MPC much of the time
Series: March Meta Matters [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1664836
Kudos: 1
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	Player Character Gender in Shippy Video Game Fic

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted: December 9, 2019
> 
> https://olderthannetfic.tumblr.com/post/189579905844/lampshadedevil-olderthannetfic
> 
> I'm posting this for day 8 of the March Meta Matters Challenge, which is also, incidentally, International Women's Day. I have plenty more gender-related meta to post, but all of it will take too long to format today, so I'm going with this brief one instead.
> 
> Someone commented that they were surprised and pleased at the quantity of OFC/Canon guy in their fandom, though maybe it's an outlier and should not be counted. I joked "Is it on Wattpad", and they responded that it was a video game. I realized that I did _not_ think it was an outlier, but that video game dynamics often get less attention--or when they do, it's the sort of game I personally prefer, like Detroit: Become Human, where almost nothing is customizable.
> 
> Not only are OFCs quite common in some parts of fandom, but a customizable female _player_ character is a whole different thing and should be looked at in light of other video game fandoms.

Hah. I was debating between ending with that joke and “Is it a video game?”

This is a bog-standard flavor of fandom when canon looks like that. Mass Effect and Dragon Age and other games where you choose the protagonist’s traits are similar. Some have more shipping of the developed NPCs. Some have more OC fic besides just the player character. But they all have a hefty dose of PC/everyone, and the female PC is usually more popular.

Dragon Age sidebar:

  * **Female Inquisitor**/Cullen Rutherford (5853) 
  * **Female Lavellan**/Solas (4757) 
  * Cullen Rutherford/**Female Trevelyan** (3724) 
  * Iron Bull/Dorian Pavus (2767) 
  * Fenris/**Female Hawke** (2501) 
  * **Female Inquisitor**/Solas (Dragon Age) (2431) 
  * **Male Inquisitor**/Dorian Pavus (2250) 
  * Fenris/**Male Hawke** (2150) 
  * **Female Lavellan**/Cullen Rutherford (2136) 
  * Anders/**Male Hawke** (1918) 

Mass effect:

  * **Female Shepard**/Garrus Vakarian (3526) 
  * Kaidan Alenko/**Female Shepard** (2305) 
  * Kaidan Alenko/**Male Shepard** (1902) 
  * **Female Shepard**/Liara T'Soni (1206) 
  * Thane Krios/**Female Shepard** (875) 
  * Kaidan Alenko/**Shepard** (532) 
  * **Shepard**/Garrus Vakarian (495) 
  * **Female Shepard**/James Vega (345) 
  * Garrus Vakarian/Tali'Zorah nar Rayya (328) 

Skyrim:

  * Brynjolf/**Female Dovahkiin | Dragonborn** (207)
  * **Female Dovahkiin | Dragonborn**/Vilkas (189)
  * **Female Dovahkiin | Dragonborn**/Farkas (187)
  * **Female Dovahkiin | Dragonborn**/Serana (152)
  * **Female Dovahkiin | Dragonborn**/Ulfric Stormcloak (131)
  * **Female Dovahkiin | Dragonborn**/Miraak (108)
  * Cicero/**Female Dovahkiin | Dragonborn** (78)
  * Cicero/Listener (Elder Scrolls) (71)
  * **Male Dovahkiin | Dragonborn**/Vilkas (67)
  * **Female Dovahkiin | Dragonborn**/Original Male Character(s) (60)

Fallout:

  * John Hancock/**Female Sole Survivor** (885)
  * Robert Joseph MacCready/**Female Sole Survivor** (671)
  * Paladin Danse/**Female Sole Survivor** (630)
  * John Hancock/**Sole Survivor (Fallout) (617)**
  * **Female Sole Survivor**/Nick Valentine (530)
  * Paladin Danse/**Sole Survivor (Fallout)** (428)
  * Arthur Maxson/**Female Sole Survivor** (414)
  * Deacon/**Female Sole Survivor** (386)
  * **Sole Survivor**/Nick Valentine (363)
  * **Female Sole Survivor**/Piper Wright (356)

Stardew Valley (for a very different flavor of game!)

  * Shane/**Female Player (Stardew Valley)** (203)
  * Sebastian/**Female Player (Stardew Valley)** (193)
  * Shane/**Player (Stardew Valley)** (128)
  * Harvey/**Female Player (Stardew Valley)** (114)
  * Sebastian/**Player (Stardew Valley)** (103)
  * Sebastian/**Male Player (Stardew Valley)** (77)
  * Shane/**Male Player (Stardew Valley)** (72)
  * Sam/Sebastian (Stardew Valley) (69)
  * Elliott/**Female Player (Stardew Valley)** (65)
  * Sam/**Female Player (Stardew Valley)** (62)

World of Warcraft seems to mostly be fic about NPCs with lore where they interact. A lot of games have a protagonist who is a predefined character (and usually still the fave for shipping).


End file.
